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Building Regulations and Standards: Self Build Stoves and Regs.

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    Please, anyone out there with any experience and or knowledge about building a stove and getting it passed Building Regs.?
    Hope to build a rocket stove after fairly extensive study on my partner's part and a course with Ianto Evans, the rocket stove guru - initial soundings with the Building Inspector are not looking favourable...
    • CommentAuthorBoneJohn
    • CommentTimeAug 5th 2008
     
    The rules in the Approved Document for Part J of the Building Regualtions (England & Wales) 2000 are in their basic principles very simple.
    These are:
    (1) will the stove be cool enough as not to set fire to the buidling fabric around it, and
    (2) will the stove have an adequate supply of combustion air, and
    (3) does the stove have an adequate flue outlet that does not endanger the occupants or the public outside of the buidling.

    Any Building Control surveyor who is satisfied that the above risks are adequately protected against, should accept the stove & flue.


    John Bone, MBEng, BSc (Hons) in Building Control Engineering
    [Local Authority Building Control Offcier since 1974] Now working with in a private consultancy.
    email: johnbone@gateshead.plus.com
    • CommentAuthorsune
    • CommentTimeAug 5th 2008
     
    John's logic seems sound.....also ensure that your hearth complies, that you have decent clearances to combustibles (500mm from the stove might be an OK figure to go for), ensure that the chimney complies and is safe, same for the flue. Then basically show the inspector that the stove works and does not smoke out the whole house......
    You will need to add ventilation to the room - base the amount on very generous estimates of heat output for the stove if no measurements exist...

    If you are making a stove from a barrel then remember that the metal is very thin and will - get very hot and is likely to burn or rust through after a while. You might consider adding firebricks to the burning chamber to protect the metal....but not having seen your design I do not really know if this would help / is needed of course...

    John a geeky question for you: Doc J page 24 has a weirdly worded sentence on it that could be misinterpreted. How do you interpret the ventilation requirement for stoves:
    1 - 550sq mm for every kw above 5kW (ie 1650sq mm for an 8kW stove)
    OR
    2 - 550sq mm for every kW if the stove is above 5kW (ie 4400 sq mm for a 8kW stove)
    ?

    (We favour number 1, but others in the industry go with number 2 - which makes no real sense to us......)

    Thanks
  4.  
    Thank you both, that's very encouraging - we'll decide on the design after the course!
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeAug 5th 2008
     
    The regs for "constructional hearths" are quite complicated and the wording of part J is confusing. Make sure you get that right from the outset, particularly if your floor will be wood joists rather than concrete...

    If the stove is certified as "incapable of rasing the temperature of the hearth more than 100C" then the requirements are simple. A 20mm thick slab of something like granite or even glass on top of floor boards is ok. The dimensions must be bigger than the footprint of the stove. Details in Part J.

    If it's not certified you maybe looking at a thick slab of concrete or if the floor is wood the slab might need to project out of the wall with an air gap underneath. Again the details are in part J.

    I'm not sure what the certification process involves as we opted for a stove with legs from Clearview. Our BCO didn't even really look at it.
    • CommentAuthorsune
    • CommentTimeAug 5th 2008
     
    It definitely won't be certified as not heating the hearth to over 100 degrees (in which case you could have had a 12mm hearth) as each appliance needs testing separately - if you make your own then that would need testing which would cost too much.

    So:

    your hearth should be a minimum of 840 x 840mm
    should extend at least 150mm to the sides and 300mm to the front of the stove
    be 250mm thick OR be 125mm thick with a 50mm air gap.

    Google "stove hearth" for further info......

    : )
    • CommentAuthorwelshboy
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2008
     
    IF what you are thinking of building is a masonry stove which has a large thermal mass ( maybe 6 tons) then the hearth needs reinforcing whatever building regs say see http://dnr.mo.gov/pubs/pub781.pdf -I know this is an american state of missouri sponsored design but the structural principles far exceed the postings above.
  8.  
    Having originally intended a masonry stove in the building design we have provided a dedicated reinforced stove foundation, so we should have the necessary preconditions for stove and hearth whether it's rocket or masonry. Will talk with Ianto Evans about the fire bricks/barrell combo should we go down that route.
    We'd be happy to go down the route of buying "ready made" but are not aware of any cast iron or steel stoves that get anywhere near the efficiency of these stoves - (potentially of course, depending on the integrity of the finished stove!)

    A sad little face is flashing as I write. Is it significant I wonder? - I've not yet got to the bottom of the role of the yellow faces in this forum....

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